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Rh As they were about to start away, the head of the family took from his pocket a handfull of odd silver pieces, and extending it to his guests, told them it was all he had, but they were welcome to half of it! Remembering that he had a wife and three or four children to feed, the soldiers smiled through their tears at his, bade him keep it all and "weep for himself rather than for them." So saying, they departed, and at sundown were at the farmer's house, fourteen miles away. Monday morning, the 17th, they "beat their swords" (muskets in this case) into plow-shares and did the first day's work of the sixty which the simple farmer secured at a cost to himself of about half rations for two men. Behold the gratitude of a people! Where grow now the shrubs which of old bore leaves and twigs for garlands? The brave live! are the fair dead? Shall time or calamity, downfall or ruin annihilate sacrifice or hatch an ingrate brood?

The publication of his "Memoirs" by General Sherman makes; for the third time an occasion for the country to ask, Who burned Columbia? The first occasion was the publication of his official report just after the event; and the second was in September, 1873, when he published a letter in the Washington Chronicle, apparently designed to influence the decision of the Mixed Claims Commission.

In his "Memoirs" just published General Sherman uses this language concerning the burning of the capital of South Carolina: "Many of the people think this fire was deliberately planned and executed. This is not true. It was accidental, and in my judgment began from the cotton which General Hampton's men had set fire to on leaving the city (whether by his order or not is not material), which fire was partially subdued early in the day; but when night came the high wind fanned it again into full blaze, carried it against the frame buildings, which caught like tinder, and soon spread beyond our control."

In his letter to the Washington Chronicle in 1873 General Sherman says: "I reiterate that, no matter what his (General Hampton's)